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a landable guide

Best cities in the Sun Belt

The warm southern tier has drawn more movers than any other part of the country. These are the cities where the sunshine comes with a livable cost and enough to do.

By Karol Gajda

photo: David Lin / unsplash

For more than a decade the Sun Belt has led American migration, and the reasons are not mysterious: warm winters, lower costs, room to grow, and jobs that followed the people who moved for all three. The band runs from Arizona and Nevada across Texas and the Gulf states to Florida and the Carolinas, a lot of ground with a lot of variety inside it.

That variety is exactly why a ranking helps. Not every city inside the region is genuinely sunny, and not every one is still affordable, since parts of Florida and the fast-growing Texas metros have climbed hard. This list ranks the warm southern states on climate and cost first, so the top spots go to cities that are unmistakably warm and still reasonable, not just cities that happen to sit below a line on the map.

the ranking

how we ranked

Filtered to the Sun Belt states (AZ, NM, TX, OK, AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, TN, NV), then ranked 30% weather, 28% affordability, 17% activity, 15% parks, 10% walkability.

common questions

What counts as the Sun Belt?
The warm southern tier of the country, roughly from Arizona and Nevada east through Texas and the Gulf states to Florida and the Carolinas. This guide uses that band of states and then ranks hardest on climate and cost, so the warmest, most affordable cities rise to the top.
Is the whole Sun Belt affordable?
Not evenly. Parts of Florida and the fast-growing Texas metros have climbed sharply, while much of the interior South and the Gulf coast stays well below the national average. The ranking rewards the cities that keep both warmth and value, rather than every city inside the region.

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